| |
|
 |
|
 1908 - 1977 (69 years) Submit Photo / Document
-
| Name |
Lucille Fay Lesueur |
| Born |
23 Mar 1908 |
San Antonio, Bexar Co., TX  |
| Gender |
Female |
| Died |
10 May 1977 |
New York, NY |
| Notes |
- Lucille Fay LeSueur; (March 23, 1905 - May 10, 1977)[1][2] was an Academy Award-winning American actress, named the tenth Greatest Female Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.
Starting as a dancer on Broadway,[3] Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in 1925 and initially played small parts. She became a famous flapper by the end of the '20s. Beginning in the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled fellow MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. She often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags to riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. By the end of the decade, Crawford remained one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars, and one of the highest paid women in the U.S.
For her performance in Mildred Pierce Crawford won an Academy Award and in the following years, achieved some of her best reviews. In 1955, she became involved with PepsiCo, the company run by her last husband, Alfred Steele. After his death in 1959, Crawford was elected to fill his vacancy on the board of directors but was forcibly retired in 1973. She continued acting regularly into the 1960s, when her performances became fewer, and after the release of the horror film Trog in 1970, retired from the screen. [1]
- Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas, the third child of Tennessee-born Thomas E. LeSueur (1868–1938) and Anna Bell Johnson (1884–1958). Her older siblings were Daisy LeSueur, who died very young, and Hal LeSueur. Although Crawford was of mostly English descent, her surname originated from her great-great-great-great grandparents, David LeSueur and Elizabeth Chastain, French Huguenots who immigrated from London in the early 1700s to Virginia.[4]
Crawford later said when she was a few months old her father abandoned the family. Her mother later married Henry J. Cassin. The family lived where Cassin ran a movie theater in Lawton, Oklahoma. The 1910 Comanche County, Oklahoma, Federal Census, enumerated on April 20, showed Henry and Anna living at 910 "D" Street in Lawton. Crawford was listed as five years old, thus showing 1905 as her likely year of birth. However, the state of Texas did not require the filing of birth certificates until 1908, allowing Crawford to later claim she was born in 1908.
Growing up, Crawford preferred the nickname "Billie," and she loved watching vaudeville acts perform on the stage of her stepfather's theater. Her ambition was to be a dancer. However, in an attempt to escape piano lessons to run and play with friends, she leapt from the front porch of her home and cut her foot deeply on a broken milk bottle. Crawford had three operations and was unable to attend elementary school for a year and a half. She eventually fully recovered and returned to dancing.
Around 1916, Crawford's family moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Cassin was first listed in the City Directory in 1917, living at 403 East Ninth Street. While still in elementary school, Crawford was placed in St. Agnes Academy, a Catholic school in Kansas City. Later, after her mother and stepfather broke up, she stayed on at St. Agnes as a work student. She then went to Rockingham Academy as a work student. In 1922, Crawford registered at the posh Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, and gave her year of birth as 1906. She attended Stephens for less than a year, however, as she recognized that she was not academically prepared for college. [2]
|
| Person ID |
I1108 |
Extended Families of Childress |
| Last Modified |
8 Jun 2020 |
| Father |
Thomas E Lesueur, b. 21 Jan 1868, San Antonio, Bexar Co., TX , d. 1 Jan 1938, Abilene, Taylor County, Texas (Age 69 years) |
| Mother |
Anna Belle Johnson, b. 29 Nov 1884, San Antonio, Bexar Co., TX , d. 15 Aug 1958, Los Angeles, CA (Age 73 years) |
| Family ID |
F381 |
Group Sheet |
| Family 1 |
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., b. 9 Dec 1909, New York, NY , d. 7 May 2000, New York, NY (Age 90 years) |
| Married |
3 Jun 1929 |
New York, NY |
| Last Modified |
8 Jun 2020 |
| Family ID |
F382 |
Group Sheet |
| Family 2 |
Franchot Tone, b. 27 Feb 1905, Niagra Falls, Niagra Co., NY , d. 18 Sep 1968, New York, NY (Age 63 years) |
| Married |
12 Oct 1935 |
Englewood Cliffe, New Jersey |
| Last Modified |
8 Jun 2020 |
| Family ID |
F383 |
Group Sheet |
| Family 3 |
Phillip Terry, b. 7 Mar 1909, San Francisco, CA , d. 23 Feb 1993, Santa Barbara, CA (Age 83 years) |
| Married |
20 Jul 1942 |
Hidden Valley Ranch, Ventura CA |
| Last Modified |
8 Jun 2020 |
| Family ID |
F384 |
Group Sheet |
-
-
|
|
|
Submit Photo / Document